The Scrapbook
by Sunset Miko
Summary: Kagome gives her best and oldest friend, Miroku, a scrapbook of their lives. Written for for mirkagfic 's Spectrum Challenge.
1. In the Beginning

I do not own Inuyasha and I make no money from these stories.

1 - The Scrapbook - Indigo

Sitting on his bed all alone in his room was a boy that was not quite yet a man. He heaved a sigh and unwrapped the box she'd left for him. A small smile spread across his face but it wasn't enough to offset the sadness already there. Only Kagome would give a guy a scrapbook for his eighteenth birthday. His fingers traced the letters on the cover, 'Kagome + Miroku' embossed in an indigo that reminded him of her uniquely colored eyes. 'Friends Forever' was done in smaller silver letters below and he let out a small, weak chuckle at the way she'd arranged the stars on the cover to spell out their initials. It was cute and he knew that she made it with her own two hands which made it perfect.

She never was one for store bought gifts, said they were impersonal. She always gave something she made. One year at Christmas she'd given everyone scarves she'd spent the previous three months knitting, and each and every one was made specifically for that person using their favorite colors. She was right too. Receiving a gift that you knew she spent a lot of time working on really conveyed just how much she cared. She poured her love into everything she did.

He slowly opened the cover and smiled a genuine smile this time when he saw the first page. 'She was such an adorable little girl,' he thought to himself. 'Of course she's still adorable now.' The whole first page of the scrapbook was dedicated to pictures of the two of them as toddlers. He especially liked the one where they were sitting side by side in the sandbox, Kagome holding a bucket and dumping sand in his lap. His legs were already completely buried and from the devilish glint in her eyes she had every intention of burying him completely.

They'd known each other for ages, since they were both in diapers. He was her best friend but she was his whole world. She knew he loved her, just not to what extent. He might as well have been another girl with the way she looked at him. She saw Miroku, her lifelong best friend, but what she didn't see was the guy that loved her with his whole heart and soul. When he looked at her he saw Kagome, his best friend and the only girl he would ever love.

Miroku turned the page carefully, wanting to make sure this anthology of their lives lasted forever. 'If only I could get her to go for this one again,' he said with a wry smile. The children in the picture couldn't be more than four years old…


	2. Marry Me

I do not own Inuyasha and I make no money from these stories.

2 - Marry Me - Yellow

"Hey Roku?"

"Yeah Kag?" he answered before adding another block to their teetering tower.

"Someday I wanna marry you. Will you marry me?" she asked with a grin before balancing one more block on top.

The yellow block he'd been lifting to add to their project dropped from his hand and just barely bumped the base of the incredibly tall block tower. It was enough though, and the whole thing came crashing down. He heard her laughing and smiled at her. "Sure, Kag, I'll marry you."

It was just an hour later when snack time rolled around and Kagome and Miroku's mothers, who were also best friends, called the two children out for cookies and milk.

"Guess what Mommy?" Miroku said proudly.

"What dear?"

"Kagome and I are gonna get married!"

That had been all it took to get it started. Their parents thought the whole thing was just too cute for words and played along. They'd helped the two select their nicest clothes and her Grandfather had played his part, leading them through their vows, slightly adjusted of course, and pronouncing them boy and best friend/wife.

Miroku smiled at the memory. He'd been the one to insist on the wife part, not that Kagome had minded. For months afterwards they'd referred to each other as husband and wife. 'Come to think of it, I think there's a video somewhere too.'

He took in each photo lovingly, wishing everything was still as easy as it had been when they were younger. Seeing her perfect handwriting, he read over what was written around the outer edge of the page as a border. He had to turn the book as he read and this time he laughed a bit more…

She looked so pretty in what she had previously called her princess dress, but that forever after would be called her wedding dress. They'd picked her a bouquet from the garden and there were even little flowers in her hair. He had on the suit his mother had bought for him to wear when she'd had his photo taken. He was nervous but excited at the same time. Marriage was forever, which meant that Kagome would be with him for the rest of his life.

Now they stood before her grandfather who was holding the notepad on which he'd written their vows. He had helped them a lot while they were trying to figure out what they wanted to say, but the words were still mostly their own, and no one but he knew what they'd chosen before the 'ceremony'. The old man looked down at his granddaughter and her best friend with a wide smile before starting.

"We are gathered here today to witness the joining of these two as best friends forever more. Do you, Miroku, take this girl to have and to cuddle from this day forward, through booboos and naptimes, in preschool and beyond with new friends and old, even when you discover cooties? Do you pledge to share all your favorite toys, to always split the last cookie, and to help clean up the mess even if you didn't help make it? Do you promise to always hold her above all others in her rightful place as your best friend?"

Their families had giggled and 'Aww'ed and Miroku had looked her right in the eye as he said "I do."

Their vows bordered the page and 'I do,' was written in a little speech bubble she'd drawn from one of the photos of him. Apparently she remembered that there was a video, because there was no way she could have recalled it all verbatim. Even though he was only four at the time, he meant every word and he still lived by his vows. She was always placed above anyone and everyone else, but learning to share her with new friends wasn't easy.


	3. New Friends

I do not own Inuyasha and I make no money from these stories.

3 - New Friends - Turquoise

He turned the page again and saw just that time, when they'd started Kindergarten and Kagome, his Kagome, met and made friends with new people.

There were the pictures their mothers had taken on the first day of school, the two standing together, nervous but ready to face whatever was to come. So long as they had each other, they both knew they would be fine. Then there was the picture of their whole class the school had taken for the yearbook that their parents had the option to buy. That day had to be the hardest day of the whole year for him.

"But I want to stand next to Kagome!" a five year old Miroku whined.

"I know you do," the teacher said in a soothing voice while trying to get twenty squirming five year olds to stand in front of the turquoise background. "But we're arranging you by size and she needs to be in the front row. You can stand behind her though."

"I don't wanna stand behind her!"

Kagome, who was flanked on both sides by other little girls, the little girls that in his mind were the enemy, ran over to where he stood fighting with their teacher with a smile on her face. "Roku! You can stand right behind me! That way you're just as close as if you were next to me, but in the picture it'll look even closer because your head will be over my shoulder!"

The teacher smiled and let out a sigh of relief as she saw that the situation was resolving itself. "That's perfect Miroku. It will look like your looking over her, just like you always do."

He frowned a bit in disappointment at not getting his way, but if Kagome wanted it that way then he would stand behind her.

She'd known that it was still bothering him though. She could always read him like a book. In the picture he was standing behind her as promised, but at the last second she'd reached her hand back and took hold of his own. The photographer didn't see it and by the time someone noticed it on the prints it was too late to retake it, so in their first class photo they were holding hands and they both had bright smiles on their faces, truly happy. Sure, Sango and Ayame were standing next to her, but he still had one better.

Sango, Ayame, and Kagome had made friends just about instantly on their first day and the two girls didn't understand why Kagome wanted to play with a boy. In their little girl opinions, girls played with girls and boys played with boys, but Kagome disagreed and after a while they'd found a way to all get along. He'd made new friends then too, Hiten and Manten, twins who didn't mind that he played with a girl. They had a younger sister, Souten, so they were used to having girls around.

There were pictures of their small groups, one of all the girls and one of all the boys, and then there was one of all six of them. Once they'd decided to all be friends they were nearly inseparable, though he and Kagome still spent the most time together.


	4. Chicken Pox

I do not own Inuyasha and I make no money from these stories.

4 - Chicken Pox - Red

Miroku turned the page again, finding the entire page decorated with bright red spots. He knew immediately what the entry represented, even without the words or the photos. When they were in second grade they'd spent the long holiday weekend at his family's cottage in the forest and on Tuesday when they returned to school, Kagome and Miroku were both rather itchy. Their parents had assumed they got into some poison ivy but when the teacher noticed their scratching and they were sent to the nurse, well, they found out that it **wasn't** poison ivy. They had both somehow gotten the chicken pox. When the school nurse called their parents to come and get them she'd explained that it was likely that one of them caught it and passed it to the other, but it was impossible to tell since they spent so much time together.

They were out of school for almost three weeks until they were no longer contagious and itchy, and since Kagome had a younger brother that hadn't had the chicken pox before and had somehow avoided contracting it from her so far, they spent the whole time at his house. Her mother came by during the day once Souta was at school to help out with the calamine lotion and the oatmeal baths. They had never had so much fun, except the itching of course. Miroku's father had brought a television into his room and the two of them lay in bed and watched cartoons all day. When their teacher sent home their work they did it together. They even scratched each other's backs.

When it was time to go back to school the two were rather upset that they would no longer get to see each other from sunup to sundown every single day, and they'd tried to convince everyone that they had somehow gotten the chicken pox again by covering themselves with little red dots using their markers. Too bad they didn't know that you only got the chicken pox once.

There were pictures of the two of them sitting in his bed, covered head to toe in little pink calamine lotion circles, pictures of them snuggled up together asleep, and then a picture of them covered in their marker pox as well. There was a small paragraph in her dainty feminine writing.

'If we could, we would have had the chicken pox forever! We had so much fun together! You scratched my back and I scratched yours, just what friends are for. Sometimes I wish we could do that again, just lie in bed together all day and watch television. I can't think of anyone I'd rather be sick with then you.'

'Yeah,' he thought to himself. 'I'd love to lie in bed with you all day too. Maybe not watching TV, but… okay, so maybe we could watch TV for **some** of the time.'


	5. Jealousy

I do not own Inuyasha and I make no money from these stories.

5 - Jealousy - Green

Even with the dawning of the evil cooties, he never let her go. If he could, he would have at least one arm wrapped around her twenty-four hours a day. He smiled as he saw the next page. There was a picture of him in his basketball uniform and another with the whole team surrounding a giant trophy. They'd won the city championships and she'd been along for the ride. He smirked at how cute she looked in her cheerleader uniform and pigtails, long green ribbons, their school color, decorating them. There was the group picture of the cheer squad as well, but he couldn't see any of the other girls, just her smiling face.

They'd decided to sign up together. The girls practiced at one end of the gym while the guys used the other, and they always walked home from practice together. Their families started a new tradition that year, always going to brunch together Saturday mornings after the games. They still did it today, even though there was no game first.

Miroku frowned as he remembered his teammates. It was the first time that another guy had shown interest in her. Hiten and Manten were on the team, but they knew better than to even think about Kagome in that way. Kouga and Inuyasha though, they were always talking about her in the locker room after practice. They fought all the time over which of them she belonged to, like she could ever belong to either of them. She was his, had been since they were in diapers and always would be.

The worst part, though, was that she encouraged them. She'd even confided in him that they were both cute. She had a crush on each of them, but she was too shy to say anything. That had been the hardest day of his life to date, when she told him that she liked someone else. There was definitely a downside to being her best friend, he learned then. She treated him like one of the girls. If he thought that was hard though, it only got worse as time passed.

The next page focused on the fifth grade science fair. They'd worked together and won 1st place with their experiment on the effects that talking to plants had on their growth. She was standing there holding the largest of their plants, the one she'd said sweet things to in her most soothing voice. Of course the plant exposed to her would grow better than the rest. She was like sunshine after all. He stood next to her holding the blue ribbon they'd received, and their display board was visible in the background.

Miroku couldn't help but smile again. They'd had so much fun working on their project together. They spent every afternoon for weeks talking to their plants, measuring growth, and doing research for their presentation. It wasn't like they needed an excuse to spend more time together, but it was his favorite part of the school year because the time she usually spent with Sango and Ayame was transferred to him as well. It was like they were four again and only had each other. It sucked when the project was over and things went back to normal, when he had to share her again.

When he saw the next page, Miroku clenched his jaw. The pictures were of a night he wished he could forget. He still hated the hanyou for what he'd done.


	6. The Dance

I do not own Inuyasha and I make no money from these stories.

6 - The Dance - Purple

It was hard enough learning to share her with others as she made more and more friends. He should have expected her popularity. She was such a sweet girl with a bubbly personality that seemed to attract everyone to her. It nearly killed him when she started to date. He'd just about worked up the nerve to tell her how he really felt about her, but he was too late.

They were in sixth grade when he'd decided to bite the bullet and tell her the truth. He'd asked all his friends for advice and planned everything he was going to say and now it was time. When the phone rang, he picked it up instantly.

"Hello?"

"Roku! You won't believe it! I have something really exciting to tell you!"

He smiled then, even though she couldn't see. He couldn't help it. When she was happy he was happy, at least that was the way it had always worked before. "I have something to tell you too, but you go first."

"Okay! Inuyasha asked me to the school dance!" she nearly squealed into the phone.

For a moment Miroku was speechless while his thoughts ran at high speed. 'That bastard! He knew I was going to tell her tonight! He knew and he asked her out anyway!' He wanted to scream, yell, and cry, but instead he forced his voice to hold steady. "That's great, Kagome," he said, trying his best not to sound sarcastic.

"So what did you have to tell me?" she asked sweetly.

Miroku searched around for an answer for a moment. He obviously couldn't tell her now! "I… um… I wanted to tell you that I got an A on yesterday's test." By the tone of her voice he knew she was skeptical, but she didn't push. If he didn't want to tell her she wouldn't try to make him.

The hanyou was touching her again. Ever since she'd told him about Inuyasha asking her to the dance, every single day he'd been forced to watch Inuyasha with his arm around her. He wanted nothing more than to rip that arm right off and beat him to death with it! If that wasn't enough, Inuyasha, who he'd thought was his friend, was not being a good winner. He was always rubbing Miroku's nose in it.

"Roku?" Kagome called, catching his attention that had moments before been focused on imagining the many different ways he could kill the hanyou who stole the love of his life right out from under him. "Are you alright? You've been kinda distant and… moody lately."

Beside her, Inuyasha snorted out a laugh. "He's just upset that he doesn't have a date to the dance."

Kagome didn't notice the subtext in that sentence, missed the tension completely, instead focusing on who she could hook him up with.

Kagome had eventually settled on her friend Yuka and the two decided to get ready for the dance together at Kagome's house, which forced Miroku to associate with Inuyasha when they picked the girls up together, Inuyasha's father being the one to drive them.

When the girls came down the stairs, the first thing out of Inuyasha's mouth was a complaint about how girls always took too long to get ready. Miroku didn't say a thing, couldn't say a thing. He could barely breathe. She was absolutely beautiful in her purple dress and he couldn't keep his eyes off her.

Kagome's mom had played the excited mother part perfectly, taking a whole roll's worth of pictures. She took some of Kagome and Inuyasha, some of Miroku and Yuka, and even more of Kagome and Miroku together. Again it seemed like Kagome was blind to him, as they stood side by side he didn't look at the camera. He was too busy gazing at her with a look that just screamed love and devotion.

Kagome was pouting. Why had Inuyasha invited her to a **dance** if he didn't want to **dance** with her? Yuka was doing her best to catch Miroku's attention, to let him know that she wanted to dance, but he flat out ignored her, offering to dance with Kagome instead.

"Roku?" she asked while they swayed slowly to the music. "Why is it that you're always there for me when I need you?"

He looked into her eyes and the words were suddenly there, right on the tip of his tongue. Just as he sucked in a breath to say 'Because I love you,' Inuyasha was suddenly standing beside them clearing his throat. He hadn't cared to dance with her, but he refused to allow her to dance with anyone else, especially someone he knew for a fact was in love with her.

"Why don't you go dance with **your** date and **I'll** dance with **mine**?" Inuyasha said darkly.

Miroku wanted to protest, to remind her that Inuyasha had refused to dance with her earlier, but when he saw the light in her eyes, how she looked so happy that Inuyasha wanted to dance with her; he forced himself to just walk away. He wanted her to be happy above all else, and if it was Inuyasha who made her happy… well he would just have to live with it.


	7. Heartbreak

I do not own Inuyasha and I make no money from these stories.

7 - Heartbreak - Blue

Watching her dance with Inuyasha… she looked so happy in his arms, her head resting comfortably on his shoulder. The sight was unbelievably painful. It felt like his heart was trying to claw its way out of his chest to then stab itself over and over. Hell, a knife to the heart would probably have hurt less than seeing her so content in the arms of another. And if the dance itself wasn't bad enough, Kagome and Inuyasha dated for the rest of middle school and into ninth grade, and he had to watch every minute of it and act like everything was just perfect.

Miroku had always dreamed of being Kagome's first kiss, but the hanyou had absolutely crushed his little fantasy, and he'd made sure to do it at a time when he was there to witness it. Once again he was nearly overcome with the desire to beat Inuyasha to a bloody pulp, but he knew that if he did she would be upset. Thankfully for him, but not so much for her, he got his chance. He even had her blessing.

She'd come to him in tears and, when her sobbing eventually subsided, she told him how she'd seen Inuyasha kissing another girl. It took everything he had to hold her while she cried over another guy when all he wanted to do was kill the guy for making her cry in the first place.

"I can't believe he did that! It hurts, Roku! It hurts so much. He should be the one that's hurting. He's the cheater!"

"Don't worry, Kagome… I'll make sure he hurts too. I promise."

And he had. Even with the rapid healing due to his half demon blood, Inuyasha hadn't been able to get out of bed for a week, and he'd been almost completely black and blue for even longer. Miroku had expected some kind of repercussions for injuring the great Taisho's youngest son, but when the old inu taiyoukai found out the cause of the fight he was behind Miroku in an instant. He even said that his son had gotten off easy, that if he'd found out first, Inuyasha wouldn't have left his bed for a month.

The great and terrible Taisho loved Kagome like a daughter and was more than disappointed that Inuyasha had ruined the chance of her really becoming his daughter like he'd hoped. She certainly wasn't going to be Inuyasha's mate now. He was embarrassed to have sired the hanyou. He thought he'd taught him better, taught him how to treat a woman, but apparently the lesson hadn't stuck. Maybe the beating he received from Miroku in her name would be easier to remember.

He'd been there for her when she couldn't stop crying, reassured her that it wasn't her fault, that Inuyasha didn't deserve her. She was available again, but she was fragile and he didn't want to take advantage of her vulnerability, and he definitely didn't want to be a rebound. He wanted her, but he wanted all of her and he knew she wasn't ready to give her heart away again just yet. He wanted her, but he wanted her forever and he knew she wasn't ready for another commitment, not when the last had turned out so badly, just another reason he wanted to kick Inuyasha's ass again.

It seemed like forever, waiting for her to be ready to move on. It was made all the more difficult because she still saw Inuyasha every day at school and it was like he was rubbing his new girlfriend in her face, reinforcing all her feelings of inadequacy. It made it that much harder for Miroku to make her like herself again.


	8. Surrender

I do not own Inuyasha and I make no money from these stories.

8 - Surrender - Orange

Another flip of the page brought him even more memories of jealousy and rage, and he wondered if she realized just how much he wished he could forget all the time she spent with other guys. And why would she want to remember them either? Again he was face to face with Kagome standing next to the next guy who would ruin his plans.

He was sure she wasn't ready yet, but apparently she disagreed. He'd just about figured out a way to slowly, gradually make his true feelings known to her when she called him, her voice giddy with true happiness, something he hadn't heard from her since Inuyasha's betrayal at least nine months earlier. It bothered him that someone else was the one to make her happy again, but he was bothered a great deal more when he found out why she was so happy to begin with.

If it wasn't one, it was the other. Kouga had asked her on a date, and apparently that was just what she needed to pull her out of her funk. The wolf certainly knew how to shower her with compliments, something she really needed. Why, was what Miroku wanted to know. Why did she respond so much more positively to Kouga then himself when he'd told her exactly the same things?

Miroku had rather quickly found new reasons to dislike the wolf. Kouga was possessive, obsessively so. After just a few weeks of dating, he'd somehow managed to make her forget about or ignore everyone but himself. She'd even started speaking with Miroku less and less often until he finally called her on it. Even if he couldn't have her heart, he refused to give up his place in her life as his best friend.

When she'd explained why she was pulling further and further away from everyone, Miroku saw red. The wolf hadn't laid a hand on her in anger **yet**, but yet was the operative word. Apparently the demon had serious anger and jealousy problems. She was afraid of him, afraid of what he could do to her and those she cared about. Miroku decided after a confrontation with Kouga that he needed backup to ensure that when Kagome ended it, it would **stay** over. Taisho was more than happy to deal with the situation and Miroku had been pleasantly surprised at how easily Kouga had given up when faced with an angry inu taiyoukai.

The damage had already been done though. His energetic and personable Kagome had disappeared, a reclusive, mousy little thing taking her place. The wolf's verbal abuse and threats had caused her to retreat into herself. It was weeks before he could put his arm around her, hug her, or even just touch her without her flinching away like she'd been slapped. Kouga was lucky he'd changed schools because if he hadn't, Miroku would have taken his frustrations about how the wolf's treatment affected her out on Kouga on almost a daily basis.

He knew again that it simply wasn't the right time to tell her, but he was determined to actually do it this time. No one would get in his way. No one would beat him to it. He couldn't keep it in anymore. He needed to tell her. The years of secretly loving her and seeing her hurt over and over again by other guys were beginning to make him crazy.

The next page of the scrapbook had pictures from multiple years, all taken at the same location. Every year she would join his family on their stay at their summer cottage, and all the years' high points were shown. There was the year she finally learned to swim, the year they'd helped a bird with a broken wing, the year they'd been super-focused on the environment and spent the entire two weeks collecting trash wherever they could find it, and even the year that he'd finally figured it all out, the year he intended to finally tell her the truth. He hated the pictures from that year.

Kagome finally regained her positive attitude and outlook, just in time for their annual trip during summer vacation to his family's little cottage. It was right beside a lake and surrounded by the forest, and Kagome had always said how beautiful it was, how peaceful. It was just what he needed; time alone with her, no one around to steal her out from under him again. Of course he hadn't counted on another family that rented the cottage next to theirs.

She was waiting for him, and he had to hurry. His mother had asked him at the last minute to help her hang the clean clothes out to dry and, while he knew it would make him late, he couldn't say no. Hopefully it would be alright. He'd picked the perfect romantic place and the perfect romantic time, right when the sun was setting, the shades of orange reflecting off the still water. He had it all worked out. He knew exactly what to say, had rehearsed it even, but that one little delay, stopping to help his mother, made it all worthless. Those few minutes were all it took for someone to swoop in and take advantage of his meticulously planned perfect moment.

The sight of her had been too hard to resist. Kagome sat waiting at the end of the dock alone, watching the sunset. Her bare feet swung back and forth, her toes just grazing the surface of the lake, and she wondered what was keeping Miroku. When she heard footsteps on the old wood, she tilted her head back to look at her visitor upside down, discovering it wasn't who she'd expected but someone else entirely.

As soon as he'd finished helping his mother, Miroku ran as fast as he could to their planned meeting place, but as soon as the end of the dock came into sight, he slowed. It was already too late. The love of his life was sitting next to Bankotsu, one of the many brothers that were staying next-door. His arm was wrapped around her shoulders and he could hear her laughter echo in the still air. Once again he'd lost. Once again he was too late, and as he turned around to return to the cottage, he decided that maybe he was always meant to be alone. Maybe she wasn't supposed to be his.


	9. Revelations

I do not own Inuyasha and I make no money from these stories.

9 - Revelations - Pink

Miroku flipped through the next few pages, seeing pictures from parties and dances, football games and track meets, and just about everything else they did during high school. She'd dated Bankotsu from the summer between tenth and eleventh grade until the middle of their senior year, but this time the breakup was amicable. Miroku never did find out why she'd ended it. He hadn't bothered this time. He didn't even try to find a way to tell her how he felt. He knew it would just backfire on him in some other guy's favor. He was sure that she would never be his. She would never see him as anything more than a friend. It killed him to think like that, but it was obviously the truth.

He paused when he flipped the page, only to be face with plain black and white, no stickers, no colorful embellishments, no photos, just four words. 'I should have known.' Eyes widening, Miroku quickly flipped to the next page. It was covered in nothing but pictures. There was a picture from their 'wedding', a picture from Kindergarten, a picture from when they had chicken pox, and a picture of a basketball game.

When he turned the page he found more words. 'The way you looked at me, the way you looked at everyone else… I should have known.' Flipping back, he noticed what she was talking about. In the wedding picture, he was completely focused on her. He didn't even notice the camera. In the picture from Kindergarten, he was holding her hand while scowling at the other kids. In the chicken pox snapshot, she was sleeping and he was just looking at her, like he was watching her sleep. He was giving the evil eye to both Inuyasha and Kouga in the one taken during one of their basketball games and it was obvious the two were staring at her instead of focusing on the game.

The next page was covered with pictures from the dance; the one Inuyasha took her to, and from earlier that night. Again it was obvious. Miroku was enthralled by her and he wasn't looking at the camera in any of the pictures. There were some that were taken by her friends during the actual dance and when he was dancing with her he looked like there was no place he would rather be. When Inuyasha cut in, the anger and jealousy on his face was obvious. When he danced with his own date, it looked like he wasn't even there, instead gazing longingly at her.

Another page covered with photos, this one of all the time she was dating Inuyasha and then Kouga. They all showed the same thing, his distaste for her boyfriends and his obvious adoration of her. The following one had pictures of her with Bankotsu, and this time he didn't look jealous. He didn't look longingly at her. He just looked empty.

Finally he flipped to the final page and his eyes widened once again. In the middle of the page was a picture of the two of them that she'd cut into a heart, layered over another, slightly larger pink one, and around it were more words written in her beautiful handwriting. 'I should have seen it. I should have known. But now it's gone, the feeling is gone from your eyes. Is it too late? Did I notice it too late? Or are the feelings still there? If they are, come find me. It took me a while to realize it and to admit it, but I love you too, Miroku. You have always been so much more than just my best friend.'

In seconds, he dropped the book and was running out his bedroom door. He almost ran right past her where she stood in the middle of his living room, like she was waiting for him. She was, he realized then. She was waiting for him, for him and no one else. And then she was in his arms with his face buried in her hair. "I thought I didn't have a chance; that it wasn't meant to be. Every time I tried to tell you…"

Kagome shushed him gently, looking straight into his eyes. "I should have seen it," she whispered before brushing her lips across his.

"It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you see it now. I love you, Kagome. I have loved you every single day of my life and I love you more each day." Finally he said it. Finally those words that had eaten away at him for all those years were released and he was free of the ache in his chest that he'd grown used to. Finally he got to kiss her and it was better than he'd ever imagined.


End file.
